On the decolonial turn: African language radio as a conduit for Setswana indigenous knowledge revitalisation on Motsweding FM’s Kgolo programme

Abstract

Scholars from across the Global South recognise the enduring significance of radio as a site for the preservation, revitalisation, and promotion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and culture. In recent years, there has been a growing corpus of knowledge that documents efforts by the media to promote IKS and indigenous languages. In South Africa, however, this effort is limited given that some indigenous language outlets dovetail towards advancing the colonial language hegemony by adopting, or code-switching with, English in their programming. This article explores how the Ka Setswana (i.e., in Setswana) segments on Kgolo (i.e., to grow), a programme on South Africa’s indigenous language radio station Motsweding FM, contribute to the preservation of Setswana cultural knowledge and practices. Anchored in Govenden’s (2023) media decolonial theory, this qualitative study analyses 50 purposively selected episodes archived on Motsweding FM’s podcasts. The findings demonstrate that Ka Setswana operates not only as a cultural archive but as an epistemic intervention that challenges the coloniality of language, power, and knowledge. The programme revives Setswana values and highlights indigenous media’s role in African cultural resurgence. The article argues that language-based broadcasting, when grounded in community memory and critical reflexivity, can advance epistemic justice and model decolonial futures.